If your horse finishes in 1st-3rd place, the jockey takes 10-20% of the money you earn ($1,000-$6,000, depending on the placing)...so s/he would take $100-$1,200, depending on your horse's finish placing and the jockey's status.If your horse finishes in 4th or lower, the jockey takes 1-5% of the purse of the race ($10,000), which would be $100-$500, depending on jockey status.

Because the jockey is greedy, they will take whatever amount is higher ($100-$1,200, or $100-$500).

Apprentice Jockeys have less than 100 lifetime wins. (Apprentice Jocks, or "bug" riders, also get less weight assigned to their horses when they ride.) I will likely set it up so that jockeys with < 50 wins charge 1% to ride, jockeys with 50+ wins will charge 2% to ride)Veteran Jockeys have at least 100 lifetime wins.

I have not yet figured out how I will assign the top 5% jockeys, but this will likely be based on win %. (And, for the record, top 5% jockeys will not come into play until we have a decent amount of veteran jocks, so don't worry about getting overcharged too soon )

I've set fees up this way so that: jockeys earn money for riding, regardless of placing (which is only fair). If you pick an apprentice jockey, you will likely earn money provided you place 4th or better (like now)...if you place 4th, you will receive 7% of the purse in race winnings, and pay out 6-7% of the purse (5% entry fee + 1-2% jockey fee). If you are willing to pay more for a veteran/top jockey, your horse will need to place better than 4th for you to make money. (Veteran Jockey = spending 8-9% total on the race, so you would need to place 3rd or better to earn money....Top jockey = spending 10% total on the race, so you would need to place 1st or 2nd to earn money.)

Comments/suggestions are welcome.

(Final Note: I will be generating more jockeys so that there are plenty to choose from when racing begins in 2011.)

Well being more of a Harness racing guy than a Thoroughbred guy I can't speak to the Jockeys side of things but I can speak to the other side. In Harness racing you have to be IN the money to GET the money. They break down the purses into 50-25-12-8-5 percent first thru fifth. AS an owner youget to pay the regular fees that are associated with keeping the horse at the track, usually $1000 to $2000 a month for feed, vet etc.. When the horse races and wins part of the purse the Trainer takes 10% of the winnings as well as the Driver takes 10%. That's 20% off the top...... you get to keep the rest!!!! I do believe that the top drivers do get and receive incentives as in a percentage of the purse but I wouldn't swear on the bible on that one. I think from a coding standpoint it would be easier to go with something like what I've outlined above and then if a jockey is in the top 5% he could get extra purse incentives as was outlined in Shanthi's message. More ramblings from an age crazed madman for you to beat about!!!! lol

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If I'd know I was gonna live this long........ I'd have taken better care of myself!!!

That's generally true, but in FF, you don't pay board or training fees. So, if you like, think of the jockey's flat fee as the equivalent to paying a(n assistant) trainer to help with your farm.

And, just by the numbers, $5,000 is nothing to spend to keep a racehorse in training for a year. (As you said, a horse in training usually costs $1,000-$2,000 per month.) So spending a bit of extra cash on a jockey to ride the horse shouldn't be a huge deal.

Would everyone feel better with just the 10/15/20% of race winnings, rather than that + flat fee? (Note: If I scrap the flat fee, I will have jockeys charge their % for 1st-5th, not just 1st-3rd...don't panic, this turns into a range of $30-$60 if your horse finishes 5th in a $10,000 maiden).

I don't want racing to suddenly become impossible to make money with, especially for newer players. However, I do want jockeys to get paid for riding.

Amy Livingston

While I as a new player would like to keep all of the money when my evil ponies do decide to place, I think it is only fair that jockeys get paid for helping our horse get a good place, after all jockeys are a very important part of the race. Also, it make the game more realistic as jockeys get paid in real life. Otherwise, they *probably* wouldn't be jockeys.

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CascadeJade

Well, I stayed out of this discussion because I wasn't sure how jockeys were paid in real life but I was under the impression that they only make money if the horse makes money UNLESS they are a top notch jockey where they get a flat fee plus a higher than normal percent of the winnings. But then again this is was just my impression.

I thought the flat fee for all jocks was a little steep plus the percent they'd get if the horse earned money. It would be pretty hard to make a decent amount of money off the allowance horses or lower...especially for newer players I think who often are just trying to figure out how to race their horses properly(and more often than not don't race their horses to thier best advantage for quite awhile).

blujackit

Sounds fine to me, especially for the new players. I know before last year my goose would have been cooked if I had to figure out how much the jocks were taking from a pittance race. So long story short, looks awesome